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What changed in South Carolina

Insurance law does not sit still, but most guides are written once and left alone. Repealed programs and retired forms keep circulating for years. This is what actually changed inSouth Carolina, when, and where to verify it.

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  1. January 1, 2026

    Driving uninsured

    Reinstatement fee for driving uninsured rises to $700

    Section 56-10-520(D) sets a $600 base fee and lets the Department of Insurance re-set it each year in step with average private passenger auto rates. Order No. 2025-006 put the figure at $700 for calendar 2026. The owner of the uninsured vehicle pays it before any license, registration or plate is reissued; a driver who was not the owner pays $100 instead.

    South Carolina Department of Insurance, Order No. 2025-006

  2. January 1, 2026

    Fault system

    Fault can now be apportioned to a non-party, and the alcohol exception is gone

    2025 Act No. 42 (H. 3430) rewrote § 15-38-15 for causes of action arising after January 1, 2026. The trier of fact now allocates a percentage of fault to a non-defendant tortfeasor who is properly disclosed, and the carve-out that stripped joint and several protection from conduct "involving the use, sale, or possession of alcohol" was dropped — only wilful, wanton, reckless or intentional conduct, or illicit drug conduct, still triggers full joint and several liability.

    S.C. Code § 15-38-15 (version effective January 1, 2026)

  3. July 1, 2024

    Driving uninsured

    The $550 uninsured motorist fee is abolished — you can no longer buy the right to drive uninsured

    For decades South Carolina let an owner register a vehicle as uninsured by paying an annual uninsured motorist fee, set at $550 in the text the legislature repealed, and drive legally with no liability policy at all. 2023 Act No. 51 (S. 549) reserved § 56-10-510 effective July 1, 2024 and ordered SCDMV to make sure nobody remained registered as an uninsured motorist. Section 56-10-520 was rewritten at the same time to make operating an uninsured vehicle flatly unlawful, with a $600 base reinstatement fee adjusted annually. Any guide that still tells South Carolina drivers they can pay $550 to skip insurance is describing a repealed scheme.

    S.C. Code § 56-10-510 (reserved) and § 56-10-520, as amended by 2023 Act No. 51

  4. May 20, 2024

    Minimum coverage

    Dashcam footage now supports a hit-and-run uninsured motorist claim

    2024 Act No. 180 (H. 4869) rewrote § 38-77-170. Where the other driver is unknown, an uninsured motorist claim used to need either physical contact with the phantom vehicle or an independent eyewitness. A recording of the crash, obtained electronically or otherwise, is now a third route, and the eyewitness route gained a sworn-affidavit requirement with a presuit deposition fallback.

    S.C. Code § 38-77-170, as amended by 2024 Act No. 180

  5. January 18, 2024

    Moving here

    A 45-day deadline to register a vehicle brought into the state is written into the code

    2023 Act No. 51 (S. 549) added § 56-3-212(F): the owner of a vehicle moved in from a state where it was properly licensed and registered has forty-five days to license and register it in South Carolina — and must do it immediately if the out-of-state registration has already expired. The same act rewrote the temporary license plate rules the new resident has to use in the meantime.

    S.C. Code § 56-3-212(F), added by 2023 Act No. 51

  6. May 18, 2023

    Moving here

    New residents get an explicit 45-day deadline to surrender an out-of-state license

    2023 Act No. 51 (S. 549) amended § 56-1-20 to add the words "within forty-five days of becoming a resident of this State". Before that the code required surrender of out-of-state licenses but named no deadline.

    S.C. Code § 56-1-20, as amended by 2023 Act No. 51

What this list does and does not cover

Recorded here: changes to the rules this site tracks for South Carolina — liability minimums, SR-22 and proof-of-insurance requirements, penalties for driving uninsured, the fault system, what a lapse costs, new-resident deadlines and crash reporting. Each entry names the session law or statute that made the change and the date it took effect, not the date it was signed.

Not recorded: rate filings, individual insurer decisions, court rulings that do not change the text of the law, and changes to rules outside those seven subjects. A short list does not mean a quiet legislature — it means little moved in the parts of South Carolina law a driver has to comply with.

A change that has passed but has not yet taken effect is not shown as current anywhere on this site. It sits on the South Carolina pages as a dated pending value and replaces the current figure on the morning it comes into force. You can see every pending change across the country at the top of the national change feed, and the sources behind the South Carolina figures on its statute index.